Lois drove straight to Chloe's. This time she wasn't leaving until she convinced her of the truth. What was Chloe going to do though? Google what to do when you wake up in an alternate reality? But she just desperately needed another human being to believe her.

"The prodigal cousin returns," Chloe said dryly when she opened the door. "It's only the afternoon. Did you need somewhere to nap as well?"

"I came because I want to talk to you."

Seemingly against her better judgment, she motioned her forward and then followed Chloe to Uncle Gabe's old room, which had been converted to an office.

Her computer was on, the cursor blinking at the end of an half-written article, but what she noticed first was all the Inquirer articles with the name Chloe Sullivan attached to them pinned in various places.

Chloe followed her line of vision. "I work for the tabloids. Sometimes my stories are true but mostly they're not. Go ahead and laugh."

"Why would I laugh? I worked for the Inquisitor myself once upon a time."

"Your husband got you your job. You had things handed to you on a silver platter. You didn't even have to go to college."

"Okay, that part about college is a little true but only because I proved I knew how to investigate and write. I worked hard to get where I am."

"Yeah, right. So is that what you wanted to talk about, rubbing your life in my face?"

"No. I need you to believe that I came back. That you're as much a sister to me as Lucy. That this isn't the way things are supposed to be. They aren't this way."

"Oh yeah, how they are supposed to be?" she said, folding her arms.

It wasn't a sign that she was about to crack, but at least she was listening. Maybe hearing it would jog something. "It's you who is married to Oliver Queen. I'm married to Clark Kent. He and I work together as partners at the Daily Planet. You use your skills for research and knowledge of the fantastical to help a team of superheroes of which Clark is one."

She was quiet for so long, Lois almost thought she believed her until she said, "You think you can have the life I wanted as a teenager so completely and make fun of me."

"No, that's not it. How would I know Clark has powers: super strength, heat vision-"

"I don't know how, but I know you want Clark, and you're trying to get me to help you. Well, I won't. In fact, I intend to warn him against you. Now get out of my house, and don't come back."

It was useless. The scales of deception were on her eyes as much as they were everyone else's. She would have to find a way to remove them alone.

She walked around for awhile, hoping that would help her think. Occasionally a man or woman near her own age would seem to recognize her and wave, and she waved back. She hadn't gone to Smallville High that long, but she'd made a pretty distinct impression apparently.

Evening fell, and she had formulated not one idea. It was like she was in a nightmare. She pinched herself just in case. It definitely hurt unless she was pinching herself in her sleep.

And speaking of sleep, she supposed she could go anywhere she wanted, since she might as well say her credit was limitless, but she didn't relish the idea of a lonely hotel room, however upscale. What she wanted was to see Clark again.

Inspiration struck. He might be bowling. It was a Saturday night, and him joining a bowling league had been part of her prediction.

She looked for him as soon as she stepped through the doors. She definitely wouldn't hear him over all the noisy clashing of the pins as the heavy balls took them down.

Aha! He was turned around, but she'd recognize that backside anywhere.

Once again when he saw her, he didn't look unhappy to see her. That had to be good. He even walked up to her on his own.

"Make a wisecrack," he said. "I know you want to."

"No, your options for entertainment are kind of limited here. Why wouldn't you bowl? Besides, then I'd have to make fun of myself for being here, but I figured I might as well see what Smallvillian night life is like."

"I thought you'd think it was amusing that I'm on a bowling league just like you predicted."

She looked at the other cops, all of whom were watching them, but then she thought about what he said more deeply. "You remember that?"

"I remember everything you ever said. Or well, most of it anyway."

How did he do that? As long as they had known each other, he could still make her fall in love with him all over again.

He cleared his throat. He obviously thought he had revealed too much. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"Are you asking me as a friend or a officer?" she asked though she said it with a grin.

"As a friend," he said with a chuckle.

"Then one beer it is."

"Just one?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"You still don't believe I wasn't drunk, do you?" she asked playfully punching his shoulder as much as an excuse to touch him and assure he was real as anything else.

He shook his head no though he was clearly just teasing and walked over to the snack bar to get her beer.

He came back with an ice-cold bottle, and she took a sip and laughed when he realized he'd cheekily given her a root beer. "You're a real comedian."

"Why don't you join us? We can add you in. It's off-season for us. We're just practicing."

She looked back at the others, two men and a woman added their encouragement through nods.

"Sounds fun, but I must warn you, it's my first time bowling."

"No problem. You just roll a ball down the lane and knock the pins over," he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Gee, thanks."

"This is Paul, Cornelius, and Kate."

She shook their hands and said hellos while Clark added her name and got her a pair of shoes just her size, proving he really did remember everything about her. He picked her out a swirly, blue-colored ball, which was good because she had no idea what poundage she was supposed to get.

"Keep moving as you walk up," he advised. "You don't want to stop until you get the line and by then you're throwing the ball."

She did as he said, but her throw wasn't centered and went straight to the gutter.

When she came back, he said, "Turn around, and I'll show you how to release."

He rested one hand on her waist as he manipulated her arm with the other to show her how to throw the ball along side her body. He seemed to do it longer than necessary, which he must have realized as he released her quickly. "Well, uh, you get the idea."

She took a seat by Kate and watched the others bowl. She watched Clark in particular. She was becoming a great fan of bowling, at least from this angle while he was wearing those dark jeans. He got a strike. Surprise, surprise. She wondered if he had to throw a game once in a while, so people wouldn't think he needed to become a professional bowler or get suspicious that there was more to Clark Kent than met the eye.

"You're lusting after him," said Kate.

"What? Where would you get an idea like that?" she asked, trying to sound as offended as her younger self would have been.

"Can't say I blame you. He's easy on the eyes and got a sweet personality to boot, but he's got the loyalty of a golden retriever. Heck, the man's even got a golden retriever."

"I know." She wondered ironically if Shelby remembered the way things were supposed to be. If so, he'd never tell.

His loyalty is what made her worry, but didn't his loyalty to her run deeper? Didn't that moment where he touched her spark something in him enough to make him let go?

Her turn came around again, and thanks to his tutoring, she got her first strike. In celebration, she threw her arms around him, and his arms went around her in return. They smiled at each other until they didn't, and it turned into an intense gaze. This time there was no mistaking that he felt the connection. "Um, nachos?"

She could tell by his tone he didn't want chips but privacy instead, so she followed him over to the snack bar.

"I-I think we shouldn't see each other anymore."

"What?"

"It's been great. It really has, and I'm glad you're reconnecting with Chloe because I think it really hurt her when you never came back, but as long as you're still in Smallville, it'd be best if we went out of our way not to see each other.

It hurt. She couldn't say it didn't. She knew why he was saying it; it was that same dogged loyalty that Kate had mentioned, misplaced though it was at the moment. It was even one of the many reasons she loved him, but the pain was still there.

"It's not that I don't like you," he said quickly, realizing the sting of his words. "It's that I like you too much, and I'm a married man, and you're a married woman."

Darn his Midwestern, Judeo-Christian values his parents had raised him with. Though she would have appreciated it in any other scenario. "I understand," she said, trying not to let the tears fall in front of him. "Just tell them I got called away to cover a story."

She quickly returned the ugly, red and blue bowling shoes and made it outside before the tears began to flow in earnest.

She truly was by herself in figuring this out. She shivered as she walked to her car. She had the strangest feeling she was being watched, and she didn't think it was Clark.